I'm planning a summer trip to Sicily and looking for hotel recommendations in the under €100 range. There don't seem to be as many hotels listed on the main booking sites (like venere) as for other areas of Italy. I'm pretty sure we want AC but other than that we're not picky. After Palermo we'll be driving around the coast hitting the highlights - Erice, Selinute, Agrigento, Syracus, Taormina. Don't have to stay IN those towns so we're open to any suggestions. Thanks.

We stayed at the Hotel Villa Mora in Giardini Naxos in 2003. I thought it was a great deal for the price.
http://www.hotelvillamora.com/

rbrazill - It does sound like a good deal. Did you find it convenient for visiting Taormina? How about driving and parking in the area?

Any other suggestions?

In Siracusa, the Hotel Gutkowski on Ortygia (which is where you want to be) is a funky mix of old and new tech and comes in at less than 100 Euros.

Eloise - thanks, that is one of the one's I've found so far, glad to have an actual recommendation for it. Got any for any of the other towns?

In Sciacca, which is a decent base for Selinunte & Agrigento, you should check out http://www.verdetecnica.com

This would only work if you will have a rental car.

Isabel- the bus from Giardini to Taormina stops one block from Villa Mora, takes about 10-15 minutes, and if I recall, cost about 2 euro. It couldn't be easier. If you must stay in Taormina, check out Pensione Svizzera, which is actually located just outside the main porto of the town and very close to the bus stop:
http://www.pensionesvizzera.com/english/default.asp

I haven't stayed there, but the Ai Cartari B&B is on my list for Palermo.

You can put Ai Cartari into the search box and find a number of threads in which it is mentioned and/or reviewed.
But it might not have AC...

Thanks guys, great suggestions.

rbrazill - I will have a car, is there parking at villa mora? Or maybe I don't need the car anymore, it will be the last 3 days. Would you advise turning it in and using pubic transportation to see Taormina, Etna, etc. I was going to keep the car and turn it in at the airport in Catania when we leave.

Eloise - the place in Palermo you suggested looks really good.

Ap6380- the place in Sciacca also looks great and I've been reading about it in a lot of travelogues. Did you stay there? The site says 3 night minimum stay for some of the units, does that mean you can do one night stays in the others?

Many of these places raise their prices for August. At the moment my trip extends into August (we'd be coming home August 5th). Do you think it would really make a huge differene if we were able to move it up a week to not be there in August? It will be less convenient but if it would make a really significant difference in the crowd levels I'd try to do it. Thanks

I don't think there is any off-street parking at Villa Mora. Giardini-Naxos was also the last four days of our trip and we did exactly what you suggested. We drove to the hotel and unpacked, then I drove to Catania airport (about 35 minutes away), turned in the car and took the bus back to Giardini. You won't need (or want) a car to go to Taormina. There are many tour/expeditions to Mt. Etna which will pick you up at your hotel. One thing I wished we had time to do, but didn't, was to tour Gola Alcantara. It's a beautiful river gorge north of Giardini. The tour operator drives you up the gorge and you walk down. It is supposedly beautiful. Here are some links:
http://sicilia.indettaglio.it/eng/co...o/turismo.html
http://www.siciliaemoto.it/siciliauk/alcantara.php

You can just e-mail the owners about the 3 day minimum question, they are very helpful. I did stay there for 3 nights in March 2003.

I obviously can't speak to the crowds question as I was there off-season, but I can guess that any crowds that might be there would be concentrated in the beach areas. I did a day trip to Taormina last August, it was very hot, over a 100 degrees and the place was crowded. But yet again, Taormina is close to some rocky & pebbly beach areas.

We just arrived back from a tour in southern Italy and Sicily. The absolute worst place we stayed was at the Kaos Hotel in Agrigento. The smell was horrible and the mildew was dripping from the shower head. We called for another room and they said there were no other rooms available. I asked for the manager to come and smell and see the filth. Instead they sent a young girl who was there for training. Finally a man came, not the manager, and he told us that the shower water was clean! I said we wanted a new shower head. Instead they cleaned it, but the room still smelled awful. I have never seen anything like it before. The grounds and entrance was nice but the rooms were terrible. Avoid this hotel!!